This study aims to comprehensively explore the core competencies required of physical education teachers in universities, within the context of modernizing higher education. The goal is to build an index system that conforms to the development of the core literacy of college PE teachers. With the vigorous development of higher education, increasingly higher requirements are placed for college teachers. Starting from the perspective of higher education modernization, this study comprehensively explores the corresponding core qualities of physical education teachers in colleges and universities, which has certain research value. The research utilizes qualitative analysis, the Delphi method, and the analytic hierarchy process to construct a comprehensive indicator system that includes four primary indicators: moral character, educational ability, teaching competence, and research expertise. These primary indicators are further divided into 15 secondary indicators, such as political morality, information literacy integration, research concept literacy, and educational and teaching philosophy, and 53 tertiary indicators, such as the integration of ideological and political education into the curriculum, information ethics and morality, research values, and pre-class teaching decision-making data. The analytic hierarchy process is employed to determine the weight coefficients of each level of indicators, as well as the comprehensive weight coefficients of the secondary and tertiary indicators. The primary indicators of the system are representative and used to determine the appropriate weight of the indicator system for different types of physical education teachers. The study found: 1. That moral character and educational ability occupy the first and second proportions, respectively, in the weight coefficients of the core competencies of different types of physical education teachers. 2. Teaching and research-oriented teachers have a considerable proportion of teaching and research expertise, respectively. 3. Research-oriented physical education teachers have a much higher proportion of research expertise than teaching expertise. 4. Teaching-oriented physical education teachers have a higher proportion of teaching expertise than research expertise. Discuss: The constructed indicator system is scientifically sound and structurally reasonable, providing theoretical reference and guidance for the evaluation and cultivation of core competencies of physical education teachers in universities, and effectively helps the sustainable development of college physical education teachers.